First look: Another developer bets on booming Castle Hill with Castle Towers apartment development

Another developer is making a major bet on the rapidly changing heart of Castle Hill, filing plans for a 25-storey mixed-use tower opposite Arthur Whitling Park and just metres from Castle Towers and Castle Hill Metro Station.

MNR Investment Group, the Shalala family property development company led by Richard Shalala, has lodged a State Significant Development Application for 148 apartments at 325-329 Old Northern Road and 2 Brisbane Road.

The application comes just days after Reve Group lodged plans a few doors down for a 160-apartment development across two 16 and 22-storey buildings.

MNR's 2,964 sqm corner site currently accommodates a collection of low-rise commercial and residential buildings, but Tony Owen Partners has designed a slender 83-metre tower that would become another significant addition to the changing Castle Hill skyline.

The proposal is the latest evolution of plans MNR has been progressing for the site since last year.

MNR took an earlier version of the project through the NSW Government's Housing Delivery Authority in 2025, proposing an indicative 162 apartments in a 25-storey mixed-use building with at least five per cent affordable housing.

The HDA recommended the project be declared State Significant Development, finding it sufficiently satisfied the objectives and criteria of the HDA process, while noting a subsequent merit assessment could result in a lower dwelling yield.

That has ultimately played out in the formal application, with the apartment count reduced from the indicative 162 to 148. The latest scheme would comprise 12 affordable apartments, alongside 15 adaptable apartments and 30 Silver Level liveable apartments.

The apartments would sit above a substantial mixed-use podium. Around 2,700 sqm would be dedicated to non-residential uses, including 2,349 sqm of commercial space and 353 sqm of cafe space.

Tony Owen Partners has sought to activate both of the site's street frontages, with commercial tenancies addressing Old Northern Road and Brisbane Road and a cafe opening toward a new public plaza.

The ground plane would also include residential communal open space, while further communal areas are proposed across the podium. In total, around 1,454 sqm, or 49 per cent of the site, would be landscaped, with just over 1,020 sqm of communal open space.

Four basement levels would accommodate 168 cars, including 161 residential spaces and seven commercial spaces, along with a car wash bay and EV charging bay.

The proposal would require a significant change to the existing planning controls.

The site currently carries a 16-metre height limit. MNR is concurrently seeking to increase that to 84 metres and introduce a floor space ratio of 5.8:1, accommodating the proposed 83.6-metre tower.

Tony Owen Partners explored several ways of accommodating that density on the unusually shaped corner parcel, including a two-tower scheme, before arriving at the single-tower preferred option through the State Design Review Panel process.

The preferred design positions the tower toward the Old Northern Road and Brisbane Road corner, allowing a considerably larger area of landscaped communal space to be created along the western side of the site.

The plans also show how dramatically the immediate area around Castle Towers is expected to change.

MNR's own future massing studies envisage substantially taller buildings across the surrounding Castle Hill town centre, while the development itself sits within walking distance of one of the suburb's biggest catalysts for further investment, Castle Towers.

Owner QIC is continuing the long-term transformation of Castle Towers from a traditional shopping centre into a broader mixed-use precinct. Its plans envisage new retail alongside a luxury hotel, A-grade office space and residential uses by 2030.

A $568 million development application for further alterations and additions to Castle Towers, including hotel and office towers, was approved in 2024, while QIC has since progressed another phase of the centre's retail redevelopment.

That investment, coupled with the Metro station immediately alongside it, is increasingly being matched by developers looking to add residential density around the town centre.

Reve Group is one of the most active. Beyond its newly lodged Crane Road proposal, the developer has also launched Nova Rêve, its three-tower mixed-use precinct around 650 metres away, following the completion of Grand Rêve.

ARADA is also progressing its 431-residence Wattle Green development, while Scion, Urban Property Group and Masscon are among the other developers with projects in the broader Castle Hill pipeline.